AGAINST: “The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters."
Trial Preparation:
check your block's wiki page for your role assignment for the trial
outline the major points for your role in the trial - post on your "role" wiki page D or G block (e.g. Beowulf)
lawyers - you should communicate with the other lawyers in your group so you can divide up the opening and closing statements, and who will be questioning which witnesses. You should also communicate about your major arguments and counter arguments.
your outline should include specific ideas and page / line numbers for the direct quotations you plan on using
include as much information on this outline as possible
CLOSING
Question: Dragon
Argument: The world may be an unplanned accident. However, that fact does not mean that there is no point of living.
Life is not 3rd person POV.
We can not stop the flow of time; life has a time limit.
We are free, however, to do whatever we want within that time.
To some people the statement, "there is no point of living," may be true. Does this imply that suicide is the only meaningful thing in the world?
The fact that someone is trying to convince another that life is meaningless is a paradox; doesn't the act of convincing itself have a meaning and relevance in the world?
Quote:
"Feel the wall: is it not hard?" (Grendel, 170)
Saying that nothing matters and existence is meaningless is wrong because we are all tied to the physical world; if you deny that, you are not saying existence is meaningless, but that you are not in existence.
3. Now you need to prepare a carefully written 250 - 300 word statement with at least 3-4 pieces of textual support (word count excludes quotes). For the lawyers, argue for your position, attempting not to simply repeat what the other lawyers are saying. Lawyers also need to make sure they have communicated with the other lawyers about which part of the trial each lawyer is responsible for - opening and closing statements, and who will be questioning which witnesses. For the witnesses, write your statement from the POV of your character, explaining what you believe to be the truth.
Thesis: Going against the quote: "The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters."
Basically, the proposition team is continuously stating that the world is absolutely meaningless and that there is no point of existing. To start with, isn't the statement itself a paradox? How ironic is it to state that there is no meaning to life when one is trying to convince others in a court? Apart from the flawed logic, there is no clear point in what the proposition is saying. Yes, it is their choice to believe in what they want. They are free to believe that the world is an absolute chaos of meaningless. But what does that tell us? Does that call for any specific action to be taken place? The idea that the world is an unplanned accident holds no significance in the physical world; we are all bound by physical laws. "Feel the wall: is it not hard?" (Grendel 170) If one were to deny that, it is not saying existence is meaningless, but that the he/she is not in existence.The opposition is not arguing for the belief of predestination. We are stating that whether not the world is an unplanned accident, the fact does NOT mean that existence is meaningless, does NOT mean past is irrelevant, and does NOT mean nothing matters. The arguments of the proposition are all held together by an unsupported implication that the world is meaningless, past irrelevant, and that nothing matters BECAUSE the world is a mere accident. The proposition, has stated that this quote is true: "No man above us will ever know whether Unferth died here or fled to the hills like a coward. Only you and I and God will know the truth. That's inner heroism." (Unferth, at Grendel's feet in his cave). A lawyer described that there is no meaning in doing anything courageous or cowardly because it doesn't change anything. But is that true? This argument holds only true if one is looking at life from a 3rd person point of view. Do organisms live in a "3rd person" POV? NO. By doing courageous or cowardly things, it makes a difference for the individual doing those things. It holds a significance for him/her. It has a change on the person. Our presence, our doings, even this very conversation may be insignificant to eternity. Which is again, ironical that one is trying to convince another of the insignificant world, when the world is pointless...Time will one day overcome us. But our existence is NOT pointless because it holds a meaning for us; things do not necessarily have to change anything eternal. Life and existence has a meaning because it holds significance for our very own lives.
Letter Reflection
The letter helped me understand a lot more about John Gardner's true intentions and ideas while he wrote the book. One quote I have used previously for my arguments proved to be totally misinterpreted. I think that the letter has changed my idea about this topic in that the world may be more of a meaningless place than I have thought. But still, I have gained a lot of information about my side of the issue as well: that there is a point in the world. I think that John Gardner's ideas were similar to my arguments in that we both think the statement "The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters." calls for no specific action. it is a theory that doesn't solve anything. In addition, we both believed that although things may be pointless if seen on a vast scale, we are free to give meaning to our lives and that life must not be viewed from a vast scale. By reading the letter, I gained greater insight into this topic and I will focus more on the topics that the author and I believed in common and will fix those quotes that the author clarified himself on, as misinterpreted. The letter helped me gain a new thought about the book Grendel.
Trial Preparation:
CLOSING
Question: Dragon
Argument: The world may be an unplanned accident. However, that fact does not mean that there is no point of living.
Quote:
"Feel the wall: is it not hard?" (Grendel, 170)
Saying that nothing matters and existence is meaningless is wrong because we are all tied to the physical world; if you deny that, you are not saying existence is meaningless, but that you are not in existence.
3. Now you need to prepare a carefully written 250 - 300 word statement with at least 3-4 pieces of textual support (word count excludes quotes). For the lawyers, argue for your position, attempting not to simply repeat what the other lawyers are saying. Lawyers also need to make sure they have communicated with the other lawyers about which part of the trial each lawyer is responsible for - opening and closing statements, and who will be questioning which witnesses. For the witnesses, write your statement from the POV of your character, explaining what you believe to be the truth.
Thesis: Going against the quote: "The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters."
Basically, the proposition team is continuously stating that the world is absolutely meaningless and that there is no point of existing. To start with, isn't the statement itself a paradox? How ironic is it to state that there is no meaning to life when one is trying to convince others in a court? Apart from the flawed logic, there is no clear point in what the proposition is saying. Yes, it is their choice to believe in what they want. They are free to believe that the world is an absolute chaos of meaningless. But what does that tell us? Does that call for any specific action to be taken place? The idea that the world is an unplanned accident holds no significance in the physical world; we are all bound by physical laws. "Feel the wall: is it not hard?" (Grendel 170) If one were to deny that, it is not saying existence is meaningless, but that the he/she is not in existence.The opposition is not arguing for the belief of predestination. We are stating that whether not the world is an unplanned accident, the fact does NOT mean that existence is meaningless, does NOT mean past is irrelevant, and does NOT mean nothing matters. The arguments of the proposition are all held together by an unsupported implication that the world is meaningless, past irrelevant, and that nothing matters BECAUSE the world is a mere accident. The proposition, has stated that this quote is true: "No man above us will ever know whether Unferth died here or fled to the hills like a coward. Only you and I and God will know the truth. That's inner heroism." (Unferth, at Grendel's feet in his cave). A lawyer described that there is no meaning in doing anything courageous or cowardly because it doesn't change anything. But is that true? This argument holds only true if one is looking at life from a 3rd person point of view. Do organisms live in a "3rd person" POV? NO. By doing courageous or cowardly things, it makes a difference for the individual doing those things. It holds a significance for him/her. It has a change on the person. Our presence, our doings, even this very conversation may be insignificant to eternity. Which is again, ironical that one is trying to convince another of the insignificant world, when the world is pointless...Time will one day overcome us. But our existence is NOT pointless because it holds a meaning for us; things do not necessarily have to change anything eternal. Life and existence has a meaning because it holds significance for our very own lives.
Letter Reflection
The letter helped me understand a lot more about John Gardner's true intentions and ideas while he wrote the book. One quote I have used previously for my arguments proved to be totally misinterpreted. I think that the letter has changed my idea about this topic in that the world may be more of a meaningless place than I have thought. But still, I have gained a lot of information about my side of the issue as well: that there is a point in the world. I think that John Gardner's ideas were similar to my arguments in that we both think the statement "The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters." calls for no specific action. it is a theory that doesn't solve anything. In addition, we both believed that although things may be pointless if seen on a vast scale, we are free to give meaning to our lives and that life must not be viewed from a vast scale. By reading the letter, I gained greater insight into this topic and I will focus more on the topics that the author and I believed in common and will fix those quotes that the author clarified himself on, as misinterpreted. The letter helped me gain a new thought about the book Grendel.
Hrothgar